Heart of darkness part 2/ what I learned at the African art exhibit

Part 2 of heart of darkness

Marlow is laying down on the still destroyed steam boat, Marlow hears the manager and his son complaining about Kurtz. They are talking about him coming to the Congo to reconstruct the stations into civilizations and how he is thinking of taking the manager position. They continue to bicker about Kurtz until they change their subject to another person who is suspicious to them, he is a trader that wanders around. The manager just wants him executed and to get on with their day but nobody is exactly sure what position of authority (if any) he is here. At this time, Marlow springs to his feet so that they would notice him listening. They were startled, but pretended to not acknowledge that he was there and they walked off. Later, Marlow's steam boat repairs are almost done and he is preparing to go up the river to Kurtz. The boat is run by the natives that the Europeans call "cannibals". Marlow finds the natives to be enjoyable people. As night falls, Marlow hears the beating of drums and sees the native homes along the river. He feels a bond, like a relative between himself and the natives.  Later, they are slowly approaching Kurtz's hut when they find another hut with firewood beside it with a note that reads: "wood for you, hurry up, approach cautiously". The  manager thinks it must have been left by that trader that wanders around. As the steamboat is approaching Kurtz on the second night now, a great fog fills the area blinding them from what may lie ahead. A cry and scream in the night scares the rest of the crew except the natives. The leader of the natives on the boat tells Marlow that the screams came from one of his fellow white- men, the " savages" were preparing to eat them. Marlow drew the conclusion that this was because they must have been terribly starting, they are not allowed to go to the station to get food for themselves and the rotting hippo meat that they did have was thrown into the water by the Europeans. Later, the ship is ambushed by a group of natives that send a swarm of arrows at the ship.the native that was steering the ship grabs a gun as well as the pilgrims and gets shot in the process. Marlow is angry at one of the pilgrims for not helping shoot and now has killed someone in the process. A few of the pilgrims on the boat just stand there as he is dying while Marlow throws his bloodstained shoes and socks overboard into the water as he worries if Kurtz is okay. The story is interrupted by one of the friends on the ship with Marlow and is curious about why he would throw a perfectly good pair of socks and shoes overboard. Marlow just states the fact that he would thereafter never know Kurtz behind the rumors. Marlow goes on with this story by sptalking about Kurtz and how good a man he though that he was. Yes, he thought highly of him until he found a not in which Kurtz was taking power by saying: " exterminate all the brutes". This note made Marlow wonder if Kurtz was really worth all of the native lives lost and yet to be lost. Once the boat reaches the shore of the inner station, the wandering trader calls them to shore and gets on the boat. Once on the boat, the trader tells Marlow that the natives don't mean any harm. Marlow of course was not convinced at first because of the entire boat being ambushed just minutes ago. The trader explains that the steam boat running into the rocks and being "accidentally" broken was a lie, he says that the boat was purposely slashed by the natives because they didn't want Kurtz to leave. The traders final word on the matter is that you don't talk to Kurtz, you listen to him, he says Kurtz has "enlarged his mind".

At the African art exhibit yesterday, I learned about the tribes and their different ways of sculpting. One tribe put lines running down the faces and things that they made statues of. It was very interesting to see the entire exhibit as well, to look around and see if their were any similarities between statues. 

If there is any symbolism in the book I think it would be the scene in part 2 when the boat is about to be attacked. The fog sets down, the crew hears the spine tingling scream and it is night, this is the perfect scene before something bad is going to happen.